NASA's moon-dirt digging competitors gain nothing
Four teams and some strange machines competed for a quarter-of-a-million dollars from NASA, but all failed and got nothing.
NASA's Regolith Excavation Challenge invited teams to build machines for digging mock moon dirt, or regolith, in a competition held in a one-ton sandbox on Saturday.
But all the teams fell well short of the winning requirement of 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of regolith deposited in a container in 30 minutes, and no one claimed the $250,000 (185,377 EUR) purse.
An excavator built by Technology Ranch of Pismo Beach did the best, collecting just over 143 pounds (65 kilograms) in half an hour. All the other machines broke down while digging.
The other three teams were from Berkley, Michigan; Rolla, Missouri; and Rancho Palos Verdes.
The prize rolls over to next year's competition, which will be worth $750,000 (556,132 EUR). // Pravda.Ru
- NASA discovers new alien planets
- Astronomers have recorded the absorption of a star by the black hole
- Telescope CoRoT discovered ten exoplanets(photo)
- Further delay to Nasa's final Endeavour shuttle mission
- Nasa Glory mission ends in failure
- U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery on its final flight
- Commercial 'Dragon' spacecraft makes history
- NASA's new free iPad app
- Astronauts try to repair space station cooling system
- NASA: Photos reveal stunning perspectives of space (video report)
- Hot Pictures of Paris Hilton Nude
- YouTube wins in the lawsuit with Ronaldo's ex-wife
- Windows Vista Kit Box Opened
- Newborn child may turn into 80-year-old person within one year
- How comes naked Paris Hilton on Windows exploits?
- Justin Timberlake finds new singers on YouTube
- Sony Vaio overheating: replacing or cleaning cooling fan
- August 27, 2009: Red Planet is about to be spectacular?
- `The Simpsons' proclaim Vermont's Springfield official hometown
- Watch Snoop Dogg TV!